>> and you will want to join us at thi time tomorrow night when anderson cooper and kathy griffin join us for a preview of their 2012 new year's eve special. it is going to be bigger and better than ever and they will be giving us all of the details. life on the d-list has never been so cool. that's tomorrow on "john king usa." that's all for us tonight. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. >> candy crowley, thank you so much. you know the jokers in the senate. we have one here tonight, former senator arlen specter comes out front like you've never seen him before. stay tuned for that. also this storing come up, it will break your heart of this 18-year-old with just days to live says good-bye to the world all on the internet. and the bottom line on the iowa caucus it is the country's first contest and let's just say it's getting ugly.

let's go "out front" -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hi there, and good evening. i'm brooke bolduan sitting "out front" with erin burnett. five days, we're five days away in the contest for the gop nomination, and as i mentioned a moment ago i know it's following. newt going after romney and perry going after santorum and everyone going after paul and bachmann is fighting very publicly with her now former iowa chief, but romney, he seems to be riding pretty high after a new cnn poll shows he hasec broen out of this dead heat and has first place pretty much all to himself. let's go straight to the ground there to our cnn political correspondent jim acosta. i know you spent the day following around mitt romney, his campaign, and you know, if i may, it looks like mitt romney has a little extra pep in his

step. >> reporter: i would say so, brook. he has a spring in his step. he came to all places, the music man museum to talk to voters earlier today. he even threw out a reference from the classic musical from the early 1960s saying he felt like playing 76 trombones. if he wins in this state it could be trouble, if i can quote from the movie, trouble with a capital "t" with his gop rivals. no presidential candidate since gerald ford has won both the iowa caucuses. one of the reasons why he is doing so well in iowa is all of the other candidates are fighting with each other and taking their sights off of mitt romney, and if you want to know how things are going for the massachusetts governor, consider

this, an 8-year-old asked him a question. is it hard running for president? >> is it hard running for the president? >> thank you. and that's a darn good question. and the answer is yes and no. it sounds like a politician. i apologize. >> reporter: so he sounded a little bit like a politician there, but he's a politician on the move. he has one of his top surrogates coming to iowa. chris christie will be campaigning tomorrow morning in des moines and romney is heading back to new hampshire, but how he is in these caucuses, he is coming back to iowa for a big swing and into tuesday and he will plan on staying in des moines on caucus night to watch those returns come in, and if those returns are good returns, he is going to be very hard to stop in this race for the gop nomination, brooke. >> i appreciate the music man reference to acosta.

>> reporter: yes. i've got the hat, too. >> very nice. thank you for not wearing that. he's in front of a crowd. this is aames, iowa, romney for president grassroots rally. i do want to switch gears and i do want to talk newt gingrich because his campaign on the downward slope as well and we're seeing this hard number, this 45% and this is his new analysis from the cmag poll showing 45% of all iowa ads were negative against the former speaker of the house. there's this hard number and this proof behind his decline in the polls. >> reporter: that's right. i think there's no doubt about it. that is what brought newt gingrich down in this state and all you have to do is turn on any tv in iowa to watch what is happening to newt gingrich. nearly every political ad that is being run by all of the other candidates is aimed at taking down newt gingrich and that goes for a pro-romney super pack which has spent more than some

of the campaigns here in negative attack ads on newt gingrich and they've had a devastating effect on his campaign and they've raised negative poll numbers if you looked at many of the polls and newt gingrich is a fighter. he still has a chance of winning this state and even though our cnn, time and poll, and there was another poll that came out from arg that shows newt gingrich perhaps not doing as badly. the former speaker of the house is not out of the woods yet, but he is in serious trouble, brooke. >> jim acosta, thank you so much. live for us tonight in iowa. now to another political story. high-profile bachmann backer shocked the political role where he jumped ship for ron paul's campaign. he said he took money for the switch and sorenson said no way. >> that conversation never happened. the fact of the matter is it just didn't happen and i think it's unfortunate that they're

resorting to these type of tactics. the fact of the matter is she warrant going to win iowa, and i believe we had to make a clear choice and it was a duty to my family and the other state and to say they weren't accepting the frugal socialist. >> she is standing by her claim that money drove him to drop her. listen to what she told wolf blitzer not too long ago in "the situation room." >> he told a lot of people and there were people a mile long that he told that he was getting money and all of those people were coming out of the woodwork making themselves available. so ken sorenson and i had the conversation on the phone and yesterday, kent even came out to our stop in iowa and he was there with me yesterday. he left our event and then went to the ron paul event. this is about money. >> well, let's see if it is about money. i want to bring in john avalon, senior columnist for "news week"

and "the daily beast." gentlemen, is someone lying here? john avalon, i'll begin with you because you're sitting right here. why would the poll camp pay? is there any sense in that. >> what michele bachmann has set up is a he said/she said. the tie-breaking vote is her political director in iowa said, look, i'm sticking with michelic bahman, but ken sorenson is telling the truth he was not offered money and he was summarily dismissed. michele bachmann has a trueing telling problem. >> there's a pinocchio potential here and someone is not telling the trueing. >> do you think the senator is a big enough player to be bought? >> if true, this is a story. it violates state law. it also takes a little bit of the lid off the way iowa

operates and a lot of people have been under a lot of payrolls and money really matters. you cited that that survey of the preference of anti-newt gingrich ads and newt gingrich ran into a wall of negative advertisement and sponsored by mitt romney's financial advantage. money really matters. the weight of money is telling and organization matters for ron paul is that, and a lot of strange things happened early and this is what it so often comes down to, the power of money. >> they dropped the demise for gingrich and i know you're itching to jump in, john aflac, but i do want to turn the corner because who would have thought we would be talking about attack ads on rick santorum. that's one of where he's fallen thus far. >> if i may, can you give me a

refresher. >> he is a former two-term pennsylvania senator. he was a very young senator in 1994. big win for republicans at that time. >> and he lost to current senator casey. he has made his mark by being a stalwart social conservative, he's famously visited 99 counties. one of the big questions of this campaign is does retail politics still matter, the fact that it is surging late it does indicate that is not all for nothing. >> it's this new attack ad for part of it, david frohm i'll throw it to you, that means you hava i bull's-eye on your back. i want to play this attack ad frommic r perry a la wheels of washington "jeopardy" style. take a look.

>> it's "wheel of washington." first question, which republican running for president voted for the bridge to nowhere earmark. yes, susie from des moines? >> rick sant tor up? >> santorum voted for a bridge to nowhere and the highway bill full of pork. >> can they fend off these arc tacks? is there enough time to make a difference? >> i think this ad shows something that the amazing boldness of american politics. for rick perry of all people to make clean government of all issues, absolutely amazing. it's not his forte to use a phrase and what's even more remarkable is that rick perry has recently been pushing very hard an idea that congress -- members of congress should work less and should be allowed to earn more outside income which is an invitation to corruption. it's a strange issue for rick perry to take and a strange approach to take against rick

santorum. rick santorum as john said is a strong social conservative and something else must be said of him and must not be lost is the excitement that may gather around his campaign. he has been the one candidate on that platform who is willing to say some of the unwelcome truths of what's happening in the middle class and the slowing down of the upward mobility and stagnation of middle class incomes and that's something that other candidates have not wanted to engage in. you may not have liked his solutions, but he has taken onboard some of the facts of american society. >> i appreciate it. thank you very much. coming up next on "out front," how the feds are tracking your kids. the baker and the musicmaker. you've heard the so-called radio head song. now meet the guy behind it. this san amazing story if you're

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in tonight's under surveillance segment, the federal government tracking your kids. your kid, the department of education recently taking steps to make it easier for states to share the personal information on fellow students. informations where they live, where they were born and how old they are and also information how often they're absent from school and how much do they weigh in the department of education says this is all an effort to help improve education programs across the country, but as you can imagine, not everyone is so thrilled from that including my next guest. lisa snell is director of child education and lisa, what is concern number one for you when you hear about this? well, you know, it's a slippery slope.

it gives you an idea and anything that happened to you in fifth grade or in high school that someone might get access to that personal information. so, you know, it tracks things like disciplinary issues and how many days you were absent from school, if you became a single mother, so there's just a lot of sensitive information and the idea of moving toward putting it in one place so that lots of different agencies have access to it, you know, is scary. >> but, what specifically, is your concern if the department of education says it's not like it's some big national database. this is for the improvement of your kids' education. what is your biggest worry that they could do with that information? >> whether they eventually will be able to do this or not is an opening question, but they collect a lot of information that has no relevance to student achievement. so the big worry might be something like, okay, we're using this information to evaluate a program like say a school violence prevention

program. so we're going to release all of the records about individual kids and their discipline programs to evaluate whether this program had less school violence and less bullying in the school. and so it just -- it gets at right now we are anonymous and we don't link specific information to specific kids, and the more the sharing goes on without the consent of the parent, the more likely that some of that information might fall into the wrong hands. >> it sounds, from what i've read, from the department of education that they say any and all information is indeed to remain. i want to quote part of what the doe is saying, is, quote, to evaluate education programs to build upon what works and discard what does not, to increase accountability and transparency and to contribute to a culture of innovation and continuous improvement in education. i think, lisa, you'll be with me in saying, look, education in america very much so, we report on this constantly, it is lagging so far behind other countries. what's wrong with the idea of

maybe the government helping my kid out? >> right. so, i mean, one of the issues with that is the government already has tons of data they could use to evaluate programs and teachers. so, for instance, when "the los angeles times" was able to look at seven years' of data for the individual value of every teacher did they take the best teachers and maybe have them have best practices? >> the bottom line is there's tons of data out there and there's no reason that we have to have even less privacy for kids because they're not effectively using the data that's obviously available to them and that's very detailed data about student achievement and about performance of programs. so this expansion just causes concern about how they might link to become a federal database in the future if they don't have to get parents' consent to share this kind of information. >> we will just have to follow up and see if they do, in fact, honor their word and keep this information to themselves for

the betterment of our children. lisa snell, thank you very much. >> thank you. busted immigrants. they're getting a perk. today the immigration and customs enforcement agency launched a toll-free hot line, people detained on immigration violations can call and get help. it's open every day around the clock and service available in seven different languages. the point, to make sure detainees know they could be deported and that they're aware of all their rights. still up front, this is such a touching story about a young man saying good-bye. an 18-year-old's final words. the father of ayla reynolds has not uneconomy kated with her. the christmas day murder/suicide in grapevinetexas. we're "out front" tonight. erybo. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash?

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911 call from the christmas day murder/suicide in grapevine, texas, that took the lives of seven family members. in it the gunman who had dressed up as santa claus is heard whispering about the rampage. >> hello, grapevine, 911. >> help me. help me. >> youio need help? >> are you sick? >> i'm shooting people.

>> do you need an ambulance or police? hello? one moment. >> he was said to have been marital and financial problems opened fire on his estranged wife, his teenage children, his wife's sister, her husband and his niece before turning the gun on himself. in pack, just 30 minutes before the 9 len call was made his niece sent this text message to a friend. i'm going to quote it. so we're here. we just got here and my uncle is here, too, dressed as santa. awesome. she then sent a second text 15 minutes later. now he wants to be all fartherly and win father of the year. police now believe that before he killed himself he tried to stage the crime scene by placing one of the two guns used in the killings in the hands of his brother-in-law, but according to authorities once he realized

what he'd done, he killed himself as well. the fire department release said those audio transmissions between dispatch and firefighters on the scene of that deadly christmas day fire that killed those five family members. they revealed the heroic efforts firefighters made to rescue the victims inside. the $1.7 million victorian home before the searing heat and flames turned them away. >> 24, unit 4. >> we've got victims trapped in the second floor. we're going to rescue made with a ladder. >> proceed. >> we got a report from one of the victims. there's people in that window. >> all right. we're going to need some protection up here. we can't stay here.

>> yeah, i hear you. we've got to get in there, though. >> okay. >> charge that time. four engine. charge that line now! >> three children and the parents of a high-profile ad executive madonna badger died in that early morning fire caused by discarded fireplace embers. smoke inhalation killed all five of them. the grandfather also died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck when he fell through roof rafters while trying to rescue one of his granddaughters. the funeral for the three girls is scheduled next week in manhattan and they'll be buried in canada where they met. a terminally ill 18-year-old shares his message with the world. shocking claims from hugo chavez. the venezuelan president said our country gave him cancer.

former senator arlen specter like you have never seen him before "out front." >> it becomes law. and then congress passes a law and it turns out to be a joke.

the u.s. government is sending a multibillion message to iran to reach the gulf region

stable or else. officials a unnounced this $30 billion deal to arm with fa jets. an obama administration official also said today the u.s. will do what it must do to keep the strait of hormuz open. right now iran's military is holding a ten-day drill just to the east of that strait in an effort to just show its force. iranian officials threatened to block it angered over the possibility of tighter sanctions all because of its nuclear program. >> and as violence continues in syria, the death toll rising as well. opposition activists say almost three dozen people were killed as arab monitors to four more cities including the damascus suburbs. that is where security forces opened fire on a crowd of about 30,000. opposition groups have been pushing back against the regime

of president bashar al assad tonight. hugo chavez, the man who claimed capitalism ended on mars says the u.s. gave him cancer. he didn't want to make his acquisitia accusations and he finds it strange that five current south american leaders have also been diagnose ied with cancer. a spokeswoman for the state department called his comments horrific and reprehensible. >> now to someone we'll be seeing a lot of new year's eve. i'm excited to be in nashville. are you excited for a little new year's eve in times square. >> i'm excited/scared with kathy griffin. >> as we should be, all of us. >> being looking forward to it. >> what do you have coming up? >> keeping it honest on the program, five days until the presidential field and it is getting odd in iowa tonight. a top michele bachmann supporter jumped to team ron paul. bachmann claims it was about cash saying the guy was paid off

and paul's campaign denies it and so does the person involved and we're keeping them honest. also tonight, a serial killer suspected of trolling the internet for targets and four women found dead in the space of a week. police say three of the dead women have one thing in common and they placed escort ads on backpage.com and also apparently in other sites as well and it focused detention on the website and the willingness to allow prostitutes to post ads and we'll speak to the law enforcement adviser ahead and the violence and syria exclusive. new videos from the front lines from inside the city under siege homes. those stories and our year-end ridiculous countdown continues with number two tonight. that all starts at the top of the hour in 25 minutes, brooke? >> good deal. mr. cooper, we'll see you then. thank you so much. now to this. are you a radiohead fan? i know i am. it has a rabid fan base that follows their every incremental move. last week when a previously

unreleased track was leaked online, fan, the media went absolutely crazy for it. here it is. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> posted on you tube last week, it was entitled putting ketchup in the fridge, how do you sit still has racked up 94,000 views and has the music magazines and fans calling it a terrific return to their earlier sound. it has been re-posted dozens and dozens of times to youtube. it has lit up twitter. of course, and here's why we're telling you this. a i couple of problems here. that is actually not the name of this song in case you're wondering, i know i was. and it's not radiohead. singer songwriter kristcrishris stoppa came before christmas.

>> i happened to see an article and saying there was a lost radiohead track, and i thought oh, that's kind of interesting. so i clicked on the website and there was a small blurb saying that some lost track that had never been released had been found, and i thought that was interesting and so i hit play and what started coming out of my speakers sounded very extremely familiar and after a couple of seconds i thought, well, wait a minute. this is my song. ♪ ♪ >> so my first thought was to think somehow i had hit play on my itunes or something on my computer had trerged itunes and i was hearing my own demos, but the funny part, of course, is that that was the song that i recorded in 2001 called "sit sti still" in new york. morris was there and me and three other guys and then that broke up and i put together public. we did a lot of things and than

a couple of years ago that couple of the members got disheartened and stopped. my partner was a baker and a storefront opened up on our street, and i sort of took the opportunity to build a bakery with roseanne. so i've spent the last two years building a bakery with my kind of library of songs just sitting there unused and it's kind of funny that out of the blue, after not doing music for a few years with no band and not having played for about a year and a half this all of a sudden pops up out of nowhere. >> right? someone played that for me earlier. you close your eyes and i thought it was radio head. i think you'll be doing more than baking. >> we came across a review. the band recorded this now infamous song with the writer noting how much he sound like jeff buckley with radiohead's

tom york. now the final online message from an 18-year-old man. don't miss this.

i just wanted to share something with now tonight that really moved me. every so unyou see a video that makes you stop and think and it did it for me and it did it for the 1.4 million people who

watched it on youtube. it was posted by ben breedlove, a teenager born with a chronic heart condition. ben passed away on christmas day and after posting a two-part video by ims had, he holds up index cards while "mad love" plays in the background. here's just a portion of it. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ a memorial service was just held for ben and we're fortunate enough now to be joined by his mother on the phone. dee an in austin, texas, and i watched this video of your son and it gave me goosebumps. of course, my condolences to you. quickly, off the top, when did you first see this video? >> our daughter shared that video to my husband and i the morning after ben passed away. >> through the video he explains

this three different times in his life that he describes cheating death and seeing this big, bright light. did you have any idea he had experienced that? >> yes. we knew exactly what had happened and he had shared those things with us and we talked about it many times and so the content of the video didn't surprise us at all, but just the emotion behind it and his sincerity was really overwhelming and it was a huge blessing to us, and very emotion emotional. >> the third time he explained with his cue cards that he cheated death he was at school and he passed out. he describes this bright light and looking in the mirror, and i took this note of what he said that resonated. he said i then looked at myself in the mirror and i was proud of myself, of my entire life and of everything i had done. it was the best feeling. knowing that about your son even though you've lost him must make you feel pretty strong to know he felt that way.

>> well, it's extremely comforting and it's a big part of what's helping us get through these first few difficult days and, you know, we can't explain what happened. it was just something, you know, very unusual and very poignant, but we just feel that maybe ben was allowed to get a glimpse of himself and his life the way god sees him, and i think god would see all of us as the people he created as beautiful people with beautiful purpose and i hope that's what ben saw when he looked in that mirror. >> when he's telling the story the ird this time he cheated death this year he was wearing his favorite suit and alongside his favorite rapper kid cuddy and he said go now. he said he immediately broke down into tears. i just want to show this message. this was on this rapper's blog, and i want to quote him. we love you ben, forever. thank you for loving me to ben's

family. you raised a real hero. he is definitely mine. you have my love. dee ann, have you been in touch with that -- have you been in touch with kid cuddy at all? >> no, we haven't been in touch with him, but it's very touching and i just think any time any kind of love is shared it's going to be something joyful and that's what this whole situation is for us and the message of hope, i think, is maybe what touched kid cuddy, and i hope that it has encouraged him and inspired him in some way the way his lyrics inspired our son. >> i read the obit that you and your husband wrote in the austin statesman and you invited everyone to log on to youtube and input ben breedlove. i thank you for calling me after your son's memorial. thank you. >> you're very welcome. thank you. coming up next, the comedy stylings of arlen specter,

america's new favorite stand-up comedian comes out front. with precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving cream works quickly to activate sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals fast for relief you can feel precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol.

as you all know, i'm not the normal person sitting in this show. it's erin burnett and erin really takes the word "out front" quite literally. she will get out there and travel to tell the story she deems to tell the story. recently she went to pakistan

and she went to visit a jail for women. >> reporter: jail in karachi, barrack-style living for some of the poorest women accused of serious crimes. >> kidnapping for ransom, murders. >> why no jail cells?murders. >> reporter: why no jail cells? few are guilty. 10% will be tried. this woman requested we block her face. he says she did not strangle her husband to death. shees been here nine months, met her lawyer once. most are waiting. on the day we visited 51 of 66 were waiting for a trial. one faces the death penalty. she says she's innocent. she's been in jail for 13 years.

her appeal was pending when we visited. the human rights chief acknowledges the problem. >> it's a major, major, major issue. >> reporter: how do they pass the time? this is one of the best in pakistan. there's a computer room and occasional yoga class. they spend most of their time sitting. the tv is never on. only the children seem immune from boredom. yes, there are children here. children with no memory of anything but jail. they have never seen their own images. they stay here until they are 7. this seems inhuman from the woman that heads the status for women. >> it has psychological influence and leaves scars on them. >> reporter: is scarring from jail better than home?

>> they are not -- facility but in jail, we have six washrooms in each barracks. >> reporter: from the woman, we heard better conditions. don't make up for injustice. >> i'm hopeless here. my dream to get rid of this place. >> the unequal treatment of women living in poverty isn't just pakistan. for many in rich and poor countries, something as natural as having a baby is a death sentence. more than 300,000 women die from childbirth. it's a shocking statistic. the founder of the humanitarian group, every mother counts. she's an activist and of course, now you see her face, she's a supermodel, too. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> seeing the sick baby there,

that's something you have seen a lot of? >> i have. i have seen a lot of sick mothers and sick families. one of the focuses is if the mother's health isn't optimal, the entire family suffers. >> you have been to a lot of places where this is true. pakistan is one place. bangladesh, south america, africa. >> yes. it's a global problem, a global tragedy. in my film, we look at the u.s. as well where we are not doing as well as we should be. amnesty international, the report you mentioned have us ranked as 50th behind 49 other countries in safe motherhood. it's shocking and inexcusable. >> what are the reasons women are dying in childbirth? >> post partum hemorrhage. women bleed to death. oftentimes they live far away from a facility or a doctor who can perform a surgery or

intervention that is necessary. another one is instructed labor. it's when a mother is maybe a young girl, not developed enough to deliver her own child and the child will die in her. then, she may die herself or experience a horrific type of outcome. it's childbirth related. another is unsafe abortion. that's 13% of all maternal deaths. >> many people don't realize in india and china, there's such demand for abortions. >> in many countries where it's not legal, it's happening. it doesn't change the number of abortions, it's just less safe for people to access services. >> what about here in the u.s. we rank number 50. it will shock a lot of people watching. it will shock people how few pregnant women have health care.

you are talking how pregnancy related complications, near misses in the u.s. are up 25% in the past 12 or so years. how is that possible? >> it is shocking. the situation here in the united states is different than it is in some of the developing countries we looked at. here, for example, one is having too many cesarean sections. one is mothers having children later. diabetes, obesity. they are problems you might not see in developing countries. here, it's prevalent. >> you are pushing the maternal bill back in congress. trying to get review. you are in school. you are speaking at the u.n. and doing all these things. you are also a mom. how do you do all of those things? >> all of the things i'm doing now are very, very linked.

i feel grateful. i had a complication with my first birth. it woke me up to these issues and understanding what exists. i feel i'm at a place where i'm able to contribute and bring who i am and who i've become to be able to share the spotlight with an issue that is underreported and not talked about enough so i can help other women. >> you are running the new york city marathon, part of the goal is to raise money for every mother counts. what is the goal? >> we are an advocacy campaign. we are raising support. we are trying to find new ways to engage audiences, new audiences to participate. i believe every woman, every person has a skill set to contribute in a meaningful way. >> thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thank you. so, last night, we showed you part of a performance by a

new stand-up comedian. take a look. >> whatever congress passes a law, it turns out to be a joke. on his 65th birthday, i said bill, congratulations on being 65. i said how do you feel? he said i feel like a teenager, the problem is, i can't find one. >> that was arlen spector. he's good enough to join me out front tonight. senator spector, nice to see you. i mean, i have to ask, more than three decades in congress, you walk into open mic night, why? >> well, i have had a lot of experience in comedy. i been a senator for 30 years

but i think humor is very important, it lightens things up. when it lightens up a little bit, you talk to one another. right now, in the congress of the united states, senate and house, nobody talks to each other. so, a little humor could help out there. >> so, you are lighting up this comedy club in pennsylvania. as the former senate judiciary chair, i watched the show online. if i may, some of the material is risque. are you running the jokes past your wife? >> well, all of the risque stories i have told were approved at home by my wife, joan. but, i have a serious side, too. i have a new book coming out about washington. it's called a cannibal devouring a senator.

in washington today, it's a blood storm. they eat up their young. a great senator like bob bennett, can't win a primary in utah. i think if you brought a little humor in, lightened things up, it could help the governance of the country. >> wow, cannibals, huh? let's talk about the gop race. who are you liking? you know your junior senator, santorum. do you think he would make a good president? >> i'm not going to get on the republican side of the iowa primaries. i may not get involved in the democratic side. i think that what is really an issue here is that the country has been run by the extremists on both sides. you have the tea party on the far right really in control.